Wagner & Me

I love Wagner's operas, and yet I know that he was anti-Semitic and that Hitler was a great fan.  It isn't always easy to separate the man from his genius, but Stephen Fry, a Jew who lost family members in the Holocaust, succeeds in doing just that in Wagner & Me.  He examines the man in personal and historical contexts and visits theaters, including Wagner's specially designed theater, where the music was, and is, played.  Ultimately, Fry comes to terms with his love of Wagner's masterpieces and is able to step, like a giddy child, into the theater to enjoy the annual Bayreuth Festival.  I really liked his analogy, comparing Wagner's music to a stained tapestry.  It is still beautiful, but the stain remains.

The Last Mountain

I was incredibly angry after seeing The Last Mountain. I found myself disgusted by the greed displayed by the coal industry and the politicians (regardless of affiliation) that they buy and that is poisoning air and water and sickening innocent children. A pox upon the executives and their henchmen who bribe ("lobby") and the officials who are bought.

10 Questions for the Dalai Lama

This week I had the privilege of attending a screening of 10 Questions for the Dalai Lama at one of my favorite movie houses, the Bryn Mawr Film Institute.  Part of the Geographical Society of Philadelphia's GEOfest, the documentary was introduced by filmmaker Rick Ray and followed by a lively Q&A.  The film and interview addressed the issues of war, peace, non-violence, the Chinese occupation, the future of Tibetan culture, and the interdependence of all people.  This simple interview, interspersed with current and historical footage, solidified my opinion that the 14th Dalai Lama is one of the few truly holy men in world history.

Caesar Must Die

At the 2nd day of the Philadelphia Film Festival I had the transcendent privilege of seeing Caesar Must Die. What a marvelous picture! Filmed within the confines of a maximum security prison, this subtitled Italian documentary follows inmates through their auditions, rehearsals, and performance of a production of Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar". Filmed mostly in black and white, the movie's only color is "outside" - within the final production and, for a brief moment, as one prisoner viewed a picture of the outside world.

The inmates, some with life sentences, stole the show with their performances. There was no backstory about their crimes, other than a line or two introducing each one, with his name, offense, and sentence. Anything more was unnecessary. The story was about the power and liberation of the production, driven home by one man's final comment that after discovering art, his cell had become a prison.

A postscript: Watching this performance of just part of "Julius Caesar" reinforces my opinion that Shakespeare is meant to be seen and experienced, not read in a classroom. I can remember being exceedingly bored by the stilted oral readings that I and my classmates endured in high school. What a difference it would have made if we had seen the plays, listened to the language as it was meant to be heard, and felt the emotion of a real performance.